[1] He was born in Santiago, the son of Joaquín Pinto and Mercedes Díaz de la Puente.

In 1810, while in Lima, he heard of the formation of the Government Junta of the Kingdom, and immediately returned to the country, where he was charged with a diplomatic mission to Buenos Aires.

While in Europe he learnt of the news of the defeat of the Chilean army in the Battle of Rancagua and the recapture of Chile by the Spanish troops.

General Pinto was the clear winner out of 9 candidates, with 118 electoral votes (29.06%), and was proclaimed elected on October 19.

Arguing that no vice-presidential candidate had a majority, they selected Joaquín Vicuña, brother of the president of the senate, even though he only got 48 electoral votes (11.82%).

Pinto resigned the Presidency on November 2 (less than two weeks after his proclamation), an event that marked his retirement from public life.

[4] In 1846, botanist Claude Gay published Pintoa, a genus of flowering plants from Chile, belonging to the family Zygophyllaceae and named in honour of Francisco Antonio Pinto.